WASHINGTON:  Four Indian-Americans have been selected to the prestigious US National Academy of Engineering (NAE) to be part of its new list of 80 members for their valuable contributions to the society.

Anil K Jain, Dr Arati Prabhakar, Ganesh Thakur and Dr K R Sridhar were formally made part of the NAE during a ceremony at its annual meeting here, the academy announced in a statement yesterday.

Mr Jain, a distinguished professor in the department of computer science and engineering at the Michigan State University in East Lansing, was elected for his contributions to the field of engineering and practice of biometrics.

An IIT-Kanpur alumnus, Mr Jain’s research focuses on pattern recognition, computer vision and biometric recognition.

Dr Prabhakar, director of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Virginia, was chosen for national leadership to advance semiconductor and information technologies.

Beginning her career as a Congressional Fellow, Dr Prabhakar has also chaired the Efficiency and Renewables Advisory Committee for the US Department of Energy.

Mr Thakur, who is the president of Thakur Services Inc. in Houston, Texas, was named a member for leadership in the implementation of integrated reservoir management techniques.

Mr Sridhar, the principal co-founder and chief executive officer of Bloom Energy Corporation in California, was selected for the “contributions to transport phenomena and thermal packaging of electrochemical systems and generation of clean, reliable and affordable power”.

Earlier, Mr Sridhar was director of the Space Technologies Laboratory (STL) at the University of Arizona where he was also a professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering.

His contributions to the NASA Mars programme to convert Martian atmospheric gases to oxygen for propulsion and life support was recognised by Fortune magazine which cited him as “one of the top five futurists inventing tomorrow, today.”

Along with the new members, the total US NAE membership has up to 2,275, selection to which is considered the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer.

Founded in 1964, the NAE is a non-profit institution that provides engineering leadership in service to the nation.